Trei culori is based on a Romanian patriotic song with the same title (music and lyrics by Ciprian Porumbescu). The original text twice underwent non-credited revisions in order to reflect the country's socialist doctrine as well as parallels between past and present glories.

The title refers to the national flag of Romania, which is a tricolor: red, yellow and blue. It has not undergone many or major changes in the course of history. Only the distribution of the colors (in point of proportion and position) changed to a certain extent, being made equal after the abortive Romanian revolution of 1848 when, under the spur of the French revolutionary spirit, many states in Europe adopted as their national flag the tricolour, or dimensionally standardized three-color banner.

The song continued as the national anthem for a few months after the overthrow of Communism, but with the original patriotic lyrics.